Obviously from Sem. *špl ‘to be low’; reconstruction of a separate Sem. root with an anatomic meaning is tentative since a possibility of an independent development ‘lower part’ > ‘thigh/leg/feet’ in each of the languages cannot be ruled out (note SED I No. 271).
The history of this root and its meaning being equal in such geographically and genealogically remote idioms as Akkadian, Arabic and ESA, but virtually absent from Aramaic, is enigmatic. Cf. Kogan–Krebernik 2021a:392f. for the discussion.